Latte art

Once upon a time, coffee for the majority of people was a rather simple affair.

Instant coffee was often drunk or a simple filter coffee.

Cut to today’s sophisticated market and things are rather different.

There are many coffee connoisseurs (and budding coffee connoisseurs) out there.

There are a gazillion different blends using different coffee beans (robusta, arabica and so on), different countries of origin giving different flavours.

There is even a variety of different ways of processing the bean   some blends even use coffee beans which have been well washed after passing through the digestive system of civet cats and elephants!

However, this is not where the sophistication ends.

Presentation is very important too.

If we pay for our coffee, we want a visually pleasant experience, as well as a sensory treat.

One way of making our coffee look a picture is the blossoming craft of latte art.

What is this?

This is the design which is created on top of a latte, using steamed milk poured in shapes to make designs encorporating the espresso in the milk.

And latte art is becoming something of an art.

There are competitions for baristas to show off their individual styles and complicated designs.

You only have to google ‘latte art designs’ to discover the width and breadth of options out there.

This is not all outside reach of mere simple coffee drinkers   many a good local coffee house can muster up a good design (perhaps a heart of a leaf) too.

In addition, rumour has it that the whole latte art business can improve the taste of coffee too.

The layering of steamed milk and espresso atop the base espresso can make the taste of coffee more distinct.

Which is your favourite design?

Do you think your coffee tastes better with a bit of latte art on top of it?

Latte Dog thanks to Caffe Society